


The Wall

by fairlightscales



Series: 33 and 1/3 [2]
Category: Poldark (TV 2015), Poldark - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1970s, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, newyorkcity, sexdrugsandrockandroll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 18:37:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20140114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairlightscales/pseuds/fairlightscales





	The Wall

Hugh entered the lounge and sat next to Demelza on the sofa. She had a glass of port and Hugh had brought in his glass of whiskey.  
"It's settled, I spoke to Fairlightscales and it's a go."  
"What's a go?" asked Malcolm as he came in and sat on the smaller settee with a bottle of beer.  
"Us," said Hugh, "I wanted to make sure we weren't stuck here because we only have a three month visa..."  
"What? What are you on about?"  
"Our story, Malcolm. It seems to have ruffled some feathers..."  
"What? Ruffled whose feathers...?" Demelza set down her glass of port on the table,  
"Blue, didn't you know we aren't real?"  
"WHAT?!"  
"Yes Malcolm," said Hugh with a sigh, "We aren't real, we're fictional."  
"So this beer isn't real?"  
"Correct." said Hugh.  
"What about Red's boots?"  
"Not real!" said Demelza.  
"Ladyland is real..." Malcolm was puzzled.  
"Oh yes," said Hugh, "Electric Ladyland Studios is real. So was the occult shop but it's long since gone out of business."  
Malcolm had a think. "I don't get it, if we're in a story, why should it stop?"  
Hugh replied, "Well, as I say, we made a bit of a stir with the chapter about the Plaza..."  
Malcolm's eyes went wide. "Who knows about that?! Christ!"  
"The readers Malcolm, and some are not best pleased."  
Malcolm gave a snort of derision. "What business is it of theirs anyway?"  
"Well, this is a fan fiction story and, apparently, our Demelza doesn't behave as she should."  
"What d'you mean, 'should'? If Red wants to sleep with us, we didn't hurt anyone! It was only a one off anyway!"  
"Well," said Hugh, warming to the subject, "It's a bit like reincarnation..."  
Malcolm rolled his eyes, "Oh here we go! I expect your grandda had a book about it an' all..."  
Hugh pouted, "He did, as it happens, but that's not the point..."  
"'Ere," said Malcolm, "You said that other shop was real. Was your grandda's store real too?"  
"Yes," said Hugh, "But if it still exists now, it's probably on online."  
"Online? What does that mean?" asked Malcolm.  
"You ask for what you want through a computer and they send it to you through the mail."  
"That don't sound like a nice way to shop..." thought Malcolm, aloud. Hugh continued,  
"Well, times change. And this '70s and '80s rock, 'Rumors' style Poldark isn't going over so well..."  
"Rumors!" Malcolm was offended. "You mean Fleetwood Mac?! We're better than Fleetwood Mac! Red can play rings around that bloke!"  
"I mean the sexual intrigue had put some off. Rumors only came out a bit ago in our world, but in Fairlightscales time it's notorious for the goings on. Nicks slept with Fleetwood as well as Buckingham."  
Blue thought this through. The singer slept with the drummer. He went red as a beetroot. Demelza smiled.  
"She didn't sleep with them at the same time?"  
Hugh kept back a giggle as he sipped more whiskey. "No, Demelza, I believe it is only us with that distinction."  
The three of them pursed their lips the way one does when you dearly want to laugh, but know you should not. Hugh cleared his throat. Demelza continued.  
"Hugh was saying the real Demelza wouldn't have done so we've made people cross."  
"What? Who's the real Demelza?"asked Blue.  
"As I started to say," said Hugh, pointedly," The first story was written in the 1950s and went on in different books until 2002.  
"You're joking!" Malcolm took another swing of beer.  
"No. So that first story wasn't set in the '50s, it was set in the 18th century..."  
"Get away!" said Malcolm, " They didn't even have records then! Were we in an orchestra or something?"  
"No Malcolm. Those characters were not musicians."  
"What?!" Malcolm frowned. "So you're saying that the first story wasn't even about music?"  
"Yes," said Demelza, " But Hugh says that the first Demelza played the spinet!"  
"The spinet..."Malcolm scoffed.  
'So, anyway," said Hugh, " It became the fashion to write new stories based on the general outline of the first one. But, as I say, we've gone out a little too far on a limb for some..."  
"So the first Demelza was real?" asked Malcolm.  
"No. We are all fictional as far as I've been told. The author, Winston Graham may have modeled her on his own wife but she wasn't a 'real' Demelza."  
Malcolm frowned, "So what of it? Why should it stop? Even if some don't like it, what's that got to do with us?"  
Hugh smiled, "It isn't stopping, but I wanted to be certain, Our story ends a chapter away from now on the plane back to England. I didn't want to be left in New York or stuck on a plane forever..."  
"They wouldn't have done, though! Fairlightscales is nice, they wouldn't leave us stranded!"  
"It was better to be sure, I don't like leaving things to chance."  
Hugh took a sip of his drink. "As it happens, we have nothing to worry about. Everything is still on."  
"So we go back to England and then what? Is that it?" asked Malcolm.  
"Well, we continue but the readers have to double back to 1975."  
"'75!" Malcolm smiled. Demelza gave a sad smile.  
"That's when we met, Blue, but I shouldn't like to live it again..."  
"You will not have to, Demelza. It's only the readers who backtrack, such as they are, we aren't everyone's cup of tea..."  
"Why's that, then?" asked Malcolm.  
"Oh, sex, drugs and rock and roll make some uneasy..."  
"Drugs!" cried Malcolm, "That wasn't our fault! it was an accident!"  
Hugh gave Malcolm a stern look. Demelza looked at her hands in her lap. Malcolm quailed.  
"Oh, I forgot about that..."  
"Yes, well," Hugh turned to Demelza, "Fairlightscales told me to tell you that '75 is the end of all that. No backsliding..." Demelza brightened, her eyes softened.  
"Oh Hugh! Did he mean it?!"  
"Yes, my dear, you don't have to worry, Ross is finished with it for good."  
Demelza pressed her fingertips to her lips, unable to contain her smile.  
"But I warn you, Demelza, once Fairlightscales hits 'post' we may not remember we had this conversation..."  
"Just hearing it once is enough." she sighed.  
"I still don't get it," said Malcolm, "If we're in a story written by Fairlightscales, I want a word with this joker! Why does Red have to have so many hard times? Why can't she have a nice story?"  
"Because, like reincarnation, the story of the first Demelza is referenced to in the subsequent ones. They always put enough of the original story into the new one and somethings just don't get changed."  
Malcolm complained, "But you said the whole thing is made up!"  
"Well yes," said Hugh, "And some other stories are more pleasant, I suppose. We aren't the only story and even our story changed. Originally this was meant to be Ross as Jim Morrison and Demelza as Pamela Courson..."  
Malcolm laughed like a drain.  
"Ross don't look like Jim Morrison!"  
"Well, no. Superficially though-a dark haired man and Courson had red hair. The Demelza in the books was a brunette, though..."  
"What?!" Malcolm was shocked. "How can any Demelza be a brunette?!" Malcolm frowned. "That settles it! There could be a thousand other Demelzas that don't even exist! None of them could be Red! Red's Red!"  
"Blue..." Demelza smiled fondly.  
"Well that's it, isn't it? If Red wants to have it off with two blokes she fancies, who's to say nay? She knows her own mind!"  
"That's another thing that happens." said Hugh.  
"What?" asked Malcolm.  
"What you just said, 'knowing her own mind'. They take bits of dialogue from the other ones and fit it in. Poldark is quite popular. There were two different TV series of it. That's where the red hair started, I believe."  
"Two TV series! Do you hear that, Red? You're famous!"  
Demelza ducked her chin, "Only a little bit famous..." then she sat up with a start, a blink of recognition. "Oh! I've said that before!" She turned to Hugh, "Is that from Poldark?"  
"Erm, no, Demelza. That's made up."  
"Oh..." she looked a bit put out as she sipped more of her port, then looked again at Hugh.  
"So why are we here instead of The Doors like it was supposed to be?" Hugh answered.  
"Fairlightscales was reading about Los Angeles at that time. It seems that New York and London were just a bit mad but L.A. was sinister. Too sinister, it put him off the idea. And it's just as well. If they couldn't cope with what we got up to in the Plaza, Los Angeles in the '70s would have made their hair fall out!"  
Demelza, Malcolm and Hugh laughed. Malcolm took a last swig of his beer with his chin tilted up. He stopped abruptly. He gulped down the beer in his mouth and swore,  
"What the fuck is that?!"  
Hugh and Demelza looked up at the ceiling.  
"The Wall...?" read Demelza.  
"Oh yes," said Hugh, " All the chapter titles are song titles. That must be one of them. Pink Floyd, I believe."  
"Never!" said Malcolm, "Pink Floyd don't have a song called 'The Wall'!"  
"Not now," said Hugh, " This song didn't get delivered to EMI until '79. We're in '78. It might not even be written yet."  
Malcolm frowned at words on the ceiling.  
"That is crazy! This whole thing is daft! If Fairlightscales is writing this in their own time, why are we saying all this? Why don't he talk to the readers in the comment box? That's what it's there for!"  
"But Blue," said Demelza, "What if Fairlightscales is shy?'  
Hugh nodded. "Fairlightscales seems loathe to comment, even when they are nice comments. Comments such as they are. We really aren't going down very well at all."  
Malcolm spread his hands out in front of him, as if offering a solution.  
"Well, why don't he get rid of the comment box then?"  
Hugh demurred, "I think that would be seen as an unfriendly gesture."  
Malcolm crossed his arms, looking up again at the title.  
"Well, if you're telling me that this bloke, Fairlightscales, is taking a bunch of books where the Demelza don't have red hair, two TV series where both Demelzas have red hair, but ain't Red, classic rock that hasn't even been written yet and whatever other fool things are floating around in 'is head and sticking them all together like a Meccano set, I say he's a weirdie with too much time on his hands!" Hugh and Demelza laughed as Malcolm smiled. He sat back down and continued.  
"But, if it means I get to be a drummer and we get to make our album and you lot are my mates, then ee's alright with me!"  
Hugh smiled. "Well we shall go on. I shouldn't like to be trapped over the Atlantic Ocean, but, as Demelza says, we probably would have gotten some sort of proper ending. 'All Tomorrows Parties' is being written in tranches, but I expect Fairlightscales will finish it properly."  
"Well really," groused Malcolm," If ee named the damned thing after the Velvet Underground, what else could they expect!"  
Hugh said "Oh! Our story is 'New career in a New Town..."  
"Bowie an' all! He isn't any kind of saint!"  
"Well," said Hugh, diplomatically, "A person who didn't know the music might not get the reference."  
"We might as well have fallen down from outer space! laughed Demelza. She chuckled again, "I had fun!"  
"So wait, " said Malcolm, "If you knew we weren't real and Red knew we weren't real then why am I the last to know?"  
"I think you're the favorite, Blue!" said Demelza, "I think Fairlightscales likes you best of us all and didn't want to fret you."  
"Well that's a fine how do you do!" Hugh and Demelza laughed. Malcolm grinned. He stood up to leave.  
"This whole thing has done my head in. I'm going to bed. Good night Hugh."  
"Good night, Malcolm."  
"Night, Blue!'  
"Night, love!"  
Hugh smiled again at Demelza. She picked up her glass up again and frowned.  
"Why 'The Wall', Hugh?"  
"Ha! I think we've been seen by some to have crashed into the 'Poldark-All Media Types' wall like a lorry load of vandals!" Demelza giggled.  
"More likely, it's because we've broken the fourth wall and are talking about ourselves as characters rather than living as we are." He thought some more.  
"Or Fairlightscales wants us as a wall between him and the readers, though I can't imagine it would do a lot of good!"  
"He means well..." said Demelza dreamily. She spoke as if she were turning new ideas in her mind.  
"Hugh? If the Poldark books are written in the '50s, can we read them?"  
"No Demelza. In our world Winston Graham writes suspense novels. He wrote book for that Hitchcock movie, 'Marnie'."  
"In our world, or the real one?" asked Demelza. Hugh knit his brows.  
"I don't actually know."  
"Will this be the only time we break the forth wall?" asked demelza.  
"I expect so, " said Hugh, "although you never know..."  
Demelza smiled down at what little port was left in her glass. Hugh was taken by her mysterious smile.  
"What? What is it?" asked Hugh. She looked up. her smile was enchanting and Hugh couldn't help but smile back.  
"I like being me, Hugh!"  
"And so you should." he replied.  
Demelza mused, "It's nice to think of all the other Demelzas. It's nice they all get their own stories. It's nice to think some of them have happier stories... I do like our story!"  
"Well, we'll not be abandoned, here, let's drink up!"  
They clinked their glasses.  
"Tear down the wall?" said Demelza.  
"Tear down the wall!" said Hugh.  
They had their toast and finished their drinks. Hugh set his glass down.  
"We should go to bed." Demelza laughed.  
"You should explain yourself, sir, or the readers will think I'm being naughty again!" That made them both laugh.  
"I shouldn't wonder," said Hugh, "We should away to our own beds." Hugh sighed. "What ever else, Malcolm is correct. You are our Demelza and certainly not anybody's Georgian maid!" Hugh tilted his head to gaze at her face.  
"You're my 20th Century Fox..."  
"Hugh..." they smiled at each other fondly and Hugh turned to retrieve his empty glass. He paused and looked at it, with the barest dregs of whiskey glazing the bottom.  
"I don't know how our story ends, Demelza, but what ever happens, I expect it can't be any worse than the true story..."

Fairlightscales hit 'post'.


End file.
